Patent Law

C5 Freedom to Operate Forum

Posted on February 14, 2009
C5 (UK) will be holding its 6th Annual Freedom to Operate Forum on April 20-21, 2009 in London, England. The conference will provide practical knowledge and strategic advice on:? Effective FTO landscaping, searching, and competitor analysis;? The latest EPO, U...

Patent Office Hosts Roundtable on Deferred Examination: The Opposition

Posted on February 13, 2009
By Donald Zuhn -- This morning, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office hosted a roundtable discussion on deferred examination. The roundtable, which lasted about four hours, brought together two dozen participants, representing a variety of industries and organizations (as well as positions on the issue), to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of implementing a deferred examination system in the U...

Center for American Progress Report a Mixed Bag of Recommendations to Obama Administration

Posted on February 12, 2009
By Kevin E. Noonan -- Rick Weiss gets it when it comes to the value of patents. "Patents assure an inventor a period of time, generally 20 years, to exclude others from using the invention, in return for a full explication of that invention by the patent holder," he says...

Manufacturing Alliance Sends Letter on Patent Reform to President Obama

Posted on February 11, 2009
By Donald Zuhn --Last month, the Manufacturing Alliance on Patent Policy (MAPP) released a report that indicates that the apportionment of damages provisions found in prior Senate (S. 1145) and House (H.R. 1908) patent reform bills would have adverse effects on the U...

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USPTO News: Optional e-Office Action Program to Begin in March

Posted on February 11, 2009
By Christopher P. Singer -- The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office sent out a series of e-Commerce Alerts on February 10, 2009, announcing that the existing pilot e-Office Action program will be made permanent and available as an option to all applicants beginning this March...

Foley Attorney Releases Treatise on Inter Partes Reexamination

Posted on February 11, 2009
By Donald Zuhn -- Recently, we were contacted by Matthew Smith (at right), an associate in Foley & Lardner's Washington, DC office and an adjunct professor at the George Washington University Law School, who wanted to let us know about a treatise on inter partes reexamination that he had just completed...

Biotech/Pharma Docket

Posted on February 10, 2009
By Suresh Pillai --GeoPharma and Dr. Reddy's Resolve Patent Litigation Related to Claritin® Patents On January 20, 2009, GeoPharma, based in Largo, FL, announced the settlement of its Clarinex® (Desloratadine) ANDA patent litigation with Schering-Plough (based in Kenilworth, NJ) and Sepracor (based in Marlborough, MA) (see "Court Report," February 24, 2008)...

Patent Office Announces Agenda and Participants for Deferred Examination Roundtable

Posted on February 10, 2009
By Donald Zuhn -- Last month, in a notice published in the Federal Register, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced that it would be holding a roundtable discussion regarding deferred examination on February 12th (see "USPTO Schedules Roundtable Discussion on Deferred Examination")...

More § 154(b)(4)(A) Actions Filed against Director

Posted on February 09, 2009
By Donald Zuhn --Shortly before leaving the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, former Director Jon Dudas was served with three last complaints from patentees seeking additional Patent Term Adjustment (PTA) for their patents. The three complaints bring the number of 35 U...

Court Report

Posted on February 08, 2009
By Sherri Oslick --About Court Report: Each week we will report briefly on recently filed biotech and pharma cases, and a few interesting cases will be selected for periodic monitoring.Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica Inc. v. Merial Ltd. et al.3:09-cv-00212; filed February 4, 2009 in the District Court of ConnecticutDeclaratory judgment of license to practice, non-infringement and invalidity of U...

Conference & CLE Calendar

Posted on February 08, 2009
February 12, 2009 - Patent Portfolio Strategies in the Post-KSR Environment (FX Conferences) - 11:30 AM to 12:30 PM (EST)February 12, 2009 - Stanford IP Litigation Clearinghouse: A Pioneering Database with "Life and Death" Statistics for Patent Litigators (Practising Law Institute) - 1:00-2:00 PM (EST)February 13, 2009 - Fourth Annual Workshop on Patent Claim Construction (Law Seminars International) - Chicago, ILFebruary 14, 2009 - Compulsory Licensing and Other IP Controls (American Bar Association) - 7:30-9:00 AM (CST)February 17-18, 2009 - Pharma/Biotech Patent Litigation (C5) - Amsterdam, NetherlandsFebruary 23-24, 2009 - Pharmaceutical and Biotech Patent Claim Drafting*** (American Conference Institute) -...

USPTO News: Agenda for Next BCP Meeting

Posted on February 07, 2009
The biotechnology, chemical, and pharmaceuticals (BCP) technology groups at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office will hold their next quarterly customer partnership meeting on March 3, 2009 at the USPTO's Madison Auditorium, 600 Dulany Street, Alexandria, VA...

BIO IPCC Spring Conference

Posted on February 07, 2009
The Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) will be holding its Intellectual Property Counsels' Committee (IPCC) Spring Conference & Meeting on March 25-27, 2009 in Phoenix, AZ. The semi-annual IPCC conference will be open to the public for the first time ever...

Document Management, E-Discovery, and Litigation Readiness for Life Sciences Conference

Posted on February 07, 2009
American Conference Institute (ACI) will be holding its 5th Annual Document Management, E-Discovery, and Litigation Readiness for Life Sciences conference from March 24, 2009 in New York, NY. The conference will provide information on:? Implementing an effective litigation hold on ESI -- and auditing compliance;? Gathering and monitoring e-data stored on multiple databases in decentralized locations;? Reviewing and producing proprietary and highly sensitive product and company information during discovery;? Cost-effectively managing outside counsel and vendor relationships during litigation; and? Responding to extensive production requests during government investigation...

Patent Claim Construction Workshop

Posted on February 07, 2009
Law Seminars International (LSI) will be holding a one-day workshop on Current Strategies for Patent Claim Construction: Key Updates on Patent Prosecution and Litigation on March 13, 2009 in San Francisco, CA. The workshop will address:? The latest on managing patent drafting;? Case law overview on patent claim interpretation;? Judicial perspective on patent claim construction;? Electronic discovery and ethics;? Advantages and disadvantages of evidentiary hearings;? Successful summary judgment hearings;? The nuts and bolts of case management; and? Handling claim construction on appeal...

Bill to Prohibit Reverse Payments Introduced in the Senate

Posted on February 05, 2009
By Donald Zuhn -- Yesterday, Senator Herb Kohl (D-WI) (at right) introduced the Preserve Access to Affordable Generics Act (S. 369) in the Senate. The bill, which is co-sponsored by Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Richard Durbin (D-IL), Russell Feingold (D-WI), and Chuck Grassley (R-IA), is designed to prohibit brand name drug companies from compensating generic drug companies for delaying the entry of generic drugs into the market...

Patent Profile: EXACT Sciences Announces Issuance of Colorectal Cancer Screening Patent

Posted on February 05, 2009
By Sherri Oslick -- EXACT Sciences Corp. announced today the issuance of U.S. Patent No. 7,485,420, entitled "Methods and Compositions for Detecting Colon Cancers," which is directed toward the use of differentially methylated vimentin as a marker of colorectal cancer...

Applying In re Bilski to Diagnostic Method Claims

Posted on February 05, 2009
By Kevin E. Noonan -- An astute reader has asked, regarding our post concerning EXACT Sciences' announcement of the issuance of U.S. Patent No. 7,485,420, whether the claims of the '420 patent would be invalid under the Federal Circuit's In re Bilski standard for patentable subject matter...

The Effects of Intellectual Property Protection on Agricultural Research: Patents Are Not The Problem

Posted on February 04, 2009
By Kevin E. Noonan -- Perhaps the most beautiful sentence in scientific literature is this one:It has not escaped our notice that the specific pairing we have postulated immediately suggests a possible copying mechanism for the genetic material.James Watson & Francis Crick, "Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids; A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid," Nature 171: 737-38 (April 25, 1953)It is beautiful because of its elegance, its understatement, and because it provokes in the reader recognition that one of the fundamental mysteries of life on this planet has been answered, with the tantalizing promise that the first two human beings who...

USPTO News: Patent Office Calls Continuing Education Pilot Program a Success

Posted on February 04, 2009
By Donald Zuhn -- Last fall, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced that it was seeking up to a thousand registered practitioners to help with a pilot test of the Office's new online Continuing Education for Practitioners (CEP) system (see "Patent Office Seeking Volunteers to Test Continuing Education System")...

Biotech/Pharma Docket

Posted on February 03, 2009
By Suresh Pillai --Oxford Gene Technology Settles Legal Action with Bioarray Solutions On January 21, 2009, Oxford, UK-based Oxford Gene Technology (OGT) announced a settlement of the patent infringement lawsuit OGT filed against BioArray Solutions, Ltd...

Ex parte Chuang (B.P.A.I. 2008)

Posted on February 02, 2009
By Kevin E. Noonan --The correspondence between a nucleic acid sequence and its encoded amino acid sequence is the basis for a great deal of how the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office examines biotechnology claims. In many instances the Office treats these sequences differently...

Amendment to Japanese IP Law Creates New After Final Deadlines for Foreign Applicants

Posted on February 02, 2009
By Christopher P. Singer -- Last week, one of our Japanese associates, Kawaguti & Partners, published a newsletter outlining the impact on foreign applicants that amendments to the Japanese Patent Law will have on patent applications after final rejection...

USPTO News: Pilot PPH Program Between Singapore and U.S.

Posted on February 01, 2009
By Christopher P. Singer -- The list of Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) participants continues to grow. On Friday, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published a press release announcing a new pilot PPH program with the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) that will begin on Monday, February 2, 2009...

Court Report

Posted on February 01, 2009
By Sherri Oslick --About Court Report: Each week we will report briefly on recently filed biotech and pharma cases, and a few interesting cases will be selected for periodic monitoring.Procter & Gamble Co. et al. v. Sun Pharma Global, Inc.2:09-cv-10342; filed January 29, 2009 in the Eastern District of MichiganProctor & Gamble Co...

Conference & CLE Calendar

Posted on February 01, 2009
February 12, 2009 - Patent Portfolio Strategies in the Post-KSR Environment (FX Conferences) - 11:30 AM to 12:30 PM (EST)February 12, 2009 - Stanford IP Litigation Clearinghouse: A Pioneering Database with "Life and Death" Statistics for Patent Litigators (Practising Law Institute) - 1:00-2:00 PM (EST)February 13, 2009 - Fourth Annual Workshop on Patent Claim Construction (Law Seminars International) - Chicago, ILFebruary 14, 2009 - Compulsory Licensing and Other IP Controls (American Bar Association) - 7:30-9:00 AM (CST)February 17-18, 2009 - Pharma/Biotech Patent Litigation (C5) - Amsterdam, NetherlandsFebruary 23-24, 2009 - Pharmaceutical and Biotech Patent Claim Drafting*** (American Conference Institute) -...

FDA Boot Camp Conference

Posted on January 31, 2009
American Conference Institute (ACI) will be holding the next session of its FDA Boot Camp conference on March 20-31, 2009 in New York, NY. The conference will allow attendees to:? Master the basics of the application and approval processes for drugs, biologics, and devices;? Comprehend the structure of the FDA and the roles of the CDER, CBER, & CDRH;? Gain a practical working knowledge of the essential clinical trials processesfor drugs and biologics, and the clearance process for devices;? Uunderstand how devices are classified, monitored, and regulated;? Explore the pivotal role of labeling in the drug and biologics approval process;?...

CLE on Stanford IP Litigation Clearinghouse

Posted on January 31, 2009
Practising Law Institute (PLI) will be offering an audio webcast entitled: "Stanford IP Litigation Clearinghouse: A Pioneering Database with 'Life and Death' Statistics for Patent Litigators" on February 12, 2009 from 1:00-2:00 PM (EST). Professor Mark Lemley of Stanford Law School; Matthew Lynde of Cornerstone Research; and Joshua Walker, Executive Director of the IP Litigation Clearinghouse, will provide a one-hour audio briefing on the Stanford IP Litigation Clearinghouse, a new database on U...

CLE on Post-KSR Patent Portfolio Strategies

Posted on January 31, 2009
FX Conferences will be offering an audio conference entitled "Patent Portfolio Strategies in the Post-KSR Environment" on February 12, 2009 from 11:30 AM to 12:30 PM (EST). Bruce Sunstein of Bromberg & Sunstein LLP will examine how the Supreme Court?s decision in KSR Int'l Co...

CLE on Compulsory Licensing

Posted on January 31, 2009
The ABA Center for Continuing Legal Education will be offering a webcast entitled: "Compulsory Licensing and Other IP Controls" on February 14, 2009 from 7:30-9:00 AM (CST). William Fisher, Professor of Intellectual Property Law at Harvard University; Ronald Cass of Cass & Associates; Greg Slater of Intel Corp...

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